Central air conditioning systems are known in which a central air conditioner is used to cool more than one room of a dwelling and typically all of the dwelling Such air conditioners include various components including an evaporator coil often installed in the plenum of the dwelling's forced air furnace. This arrangement uses the normal furnace air distribution ducts to carry the cooled air throughout the dwelling. Various other parts of the air conditioning system are located outside, e.g. the motor unit and condensing coil. Hoses interconnect the condensing and evaporator coils to carry the refrigerant between them.
Not all dwellings have forced air heating systems. Some houses have hot water or steam heat. Central air conditioning systems can still be installed in such structures, but they require a separate duct system and fan(s) for distributing the cooled air. The evaporator coil of the air conditioner is still mounted somewhere in this duct system. Again, the other components of the air conditioning system are located outside.
One byproduct of the operation of any air conditioner is water which condenses on the outside of the evaporator coil from the air in the dwelling, thus also dehumidifying the air. This condensate is formed in relatively large amounts when the air conditioner is working fairly constantly in hot and humid climates. Removal of the condensate is no problem for a window air conditioner that cools a single room and sits in a window. For such a window unit, the condensate simply collects in a bottom drain pan and drains away outside the building through a drain hole located exteriorly of the building.
Unfortunately, condensate removal is more of a problem for central air conditioning systems that sit in the interior of some portion of the house, typically in the basement where the furnace is located. Most basements are provided with at least one drain in the basement floor. If the evaporator coil of the air conditioner is located close to this drain, a simple drain hose leading from the condensate drain pan is used to drain the condensate away. This works adequately in these situations.
However, a close location of the evaporator coil to the drain is not always possible, especially since many central air conditioning systems are retrofitted onto existing furnaces that were not originally located with any through to draining away condensate. While drain hoses are still used leading from the evaporator coil to the drain, such hoses are now simply laid across the basement floor and may extend over quite a long distance. These hoses can be hazardous as people can trip over them and they are certainly not aesthetically pleasing. This is especially true if the basement area has been or is intended to be remodeled into living areas for the family.